Woodpecker

I know.

In fact, I also know it was almost exactly 7.95 metres away. I was taking a picture of a wren at the time. Bit dark. I could hear some sort of eating noise. A bit like things breaking open. I was standing looking at a tree on the other side of a wall. It wasn't the wren and I concluded it could only be a sheep from the field, out of sight.

As I stood there a bit longer, waiting for the wren to hit the sunlight, up from behind the wall came a woodpecker, perfectly posed. I have never been so close! My shutter wouldn't depress. My lens was set for the red kites I'd spotted high in the sky at 8m+ away. The woodpecker was fractionally closer than the wren and therefore fractionally out of range. It flew off. That one is committed to a lovely memory.

I continued on my way, still pleased with my sighting.

After commenting only yesterday that I hadn't seen the red kites up on the moor since the summer, there were two, swooping over the reservoir and eating on the wing. This one came in for a closer look. I managed a few close-ish shots but particularly liked the back of its wing on this one which I haven't captured like that before. A lovely consolation prize.